ReadMe 1Introductory Notes |
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January 17 2025 06:28 EST Carnell Learning Center Atrium Lander University SITE SEARCH ENGINEsince 01.01.06 |
Introduction to Philosophical Inquiry
ReadMe 1Abstract: Beginning study for the online course in introductory philosophy is outlined and discussed Welcome to the Course! A good way to begin the course is as follows: …
Your first week is probably the busiest week. Do not be overly concerned about a slow start. Many students are new to an online course, and to read the syllabus and become acquainted with the Website takes a few days. The most efficient way to proceed is to concentrate on one thing at a time and not try to do all things at once. Hopefully, by the end of the first full week of classes everyone will have figured out how to access and study the readings assignments for the course. Important! As the syllabus notes, this online philosophy course is not for everyone. The course assumes that you are able to work independently and schedule time daily for reading and study. Your Web course puts a substantial burden on you to take charge of your own learning. Before continuing with this course carefully consider whether or not you are the kind of pro-active student who can motivate yourself to take charge of your own learning and who can follow written instructions carefully. You must be able to allocate at least the mininum amount of study time suggested in the syllabus for this course. Students who study daily often do well; students who study only on weekends, or study only just before tests, cannot hope to succeed in this course because the tests require understanding and reasoning about the meaning of the philosophical concepts and principles studied. This is not a factual-type course. Grades in previous online introductory philosophy classes have proved to be “bi-modal”: about 30% are As, 25% Bs, 10% Cs, 15% D's, and 20% Fs. About half of the Fs in previous courses are due to students thinking that take-home tests can be done by simply paraphrasing online notes a few days before the test due date. The other half of the Fs occur because of academic dishonesty. In this day and age, there are an amazing variety of ways to verifiy academic honesty which range from statistical tests and file metadata to dedicated commercial programs—all of which are routinely applied by your instructor in order to assure fairness for everyone. I realize that most students cannot fathom how copying True/False and Multiple Choice questions can be known through statistical tests. If you are interested, see the FAQ explaining how it is done. I think objective questions are an important part of assessment, and if academic honesty could not be checked, I would not use this method of testing for an open-book test. The following document explains the methods as to the validity of these checks: Integrity Castle Rock Research. In this course, checking academic honesty for objective questions is done by Castle Rock Research Corporation a company which also assesses government civil service exams by the same statistical measures used in this course. The key to doing well in this philosophy course is to keep up with course content on a daily basis. The main reason some persons do not do well in this course is, I think,
due to two reasons. (1) misunderstanding how to approach the "open
book" and "open notes" tests (2) being unaware of how evident online
paraphrasing of another person's work shows up in student work. Anyone can do well in this course if he or she approaches the course
in the same way as one approaches playing a sport, playing music, or
learning a language. Just as it is difficult to "cram" the night before a soccer game,
a tennis match, or a recital so it is likewise difficult to do well in philosophy by
trying to do too much at one time. If you have any trouble beginning these items listed above, email me at larchie at philosophy.lander.edu (convert the "at" to the "@" symbol in the address) and I'll be glad to help get started. I look forward to an exciting and fascinating semester and hope you do so as well. Further Recommended Reading:
"Philosophy is knowledge of the Universe, or of everything there is, but
when we set forth on its quest, we know neither what there is, nor if what
there is forms a Universe or a Multi-verse, nor whether Universe or
Multi-verse will be knowable."
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